Father seeks a healing framework

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Ms Stuttle, and top, father Alan presents a painting by Mr Stuttle to Bundaberg.

The father of a murdered British backpacker is coming to Australia to retrace her steps as he prepares the final passages of a book on the impact of her death.

Alan Stuttle will spend time in the Queensland Supreme Court sitting in Bundaberg where Ian Previte, 32, went on trial yesterday for the murder of 19-year-old Caroline Stuttle in April 2002.

Mr Stuttle's son Richard, 26, a chef, is already in Australia to observe the opening of the trial on the family's behalf.

The body of Ms Stuttle, 19,

was found on a bank of the Burnett river after she was apparently thrown from Bundaberg Bridge, 350 kilometres north of Brisbane. She had been robbed of her handbag and mobile phone while returning to a campsite from using a telephone kiosk to call her boyfriend in Yorkshire.

Mr Stuttle, 65, a professional artist, said: "I will go to the trial in part. I think it is important to go out to Bundaberg and see justice is being done. It's like facing the devil, sometimes you have to face things head on.

"Our area now is going forward into life and bringing what good we can out of this revolting thing that has happened to the family."

Mr Stuttle will spend much of his time painting the places and scenes Caroline identified to him in her regular text messages.

Among them will be the Great Barrier Reef, Sydney Harbour Bridge and many other points on her route to Bundaberg.

"I have retained all the text messages," Mr Stuttle said. "I wanted to know where she was. That's the important thing; fathers always want to know where daughters are."

His first painting will be of a tree at Bundaberg planted by backpackers in Caroline's memory. It will be used on the cover for his almost completed book, The Bridge, which details how he has dealt with the grief of his daughter's death.

Mr Stuttle, who runs a gallery in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, said: "The last time I saw Caroline she was a vibrant young woman going off to Australia, full of love, full of fun, full of energy. Then she came back a cold shell, no life at all. Dead.

"People say 'What's it like?' You have to go and see the body in the morgue, you have to choose the coffin, you have to go and see your child in a coffin. It's a very difficult emotion to conjure up.

"I feel that through writing, putting it down on paper it may not only help myself but other people if, unfortunately, they have this thing happen to them. "I thought: now, to complete my catharsis or whatever it is, go and see places through Caroline's eyes."

Ms Stuttle, his former wife Marjorie and their son are all keen for Caroline's memory to be preserved by helping other young people wishing to pursue their dreams of travelling.

Mr Stuttle has set up an art bursary for students at her former school, while her mother has established Caroline's Rainbow Foundation, a charity to help young backpackers who find themselves in distress or hardship. "Caroline was the brave one," Mr Stuttle said, "she tried to stop this thing going on. She was found with part of the strap of her handbag in her hand when she put up resistance. Caroline's screams were heard by many people who thought it was youngsters playing about. I have a letter from a lady saying she will always blame herself for the rest of her life for not going to find out what it was about.

"But I say to her: 'Who knows?' If is a word we can all use. The gift of foresight would be wonderful, wouldn't it?"

Mr Stuttle is planning to buy a property in New Zealand, and intends taking up son Richard's suggestion of painting the seven wonders of the world. Richard was also responsible for writing the epitaph on his sister's headstone: "You touched the world - the world touched you."